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Ben's Week In Review: February 14

It has been a fun week but I'm getting a little tired of the snow. This usually doesn't happen until early March...maybe I'm just getting old.

A new inFamous this year? Yes, please!

So the OPM rumor says Sucker Punch may deliver a sequel to inFamous later this year and if accurate, it will quickly become one of my most anticipated titles of 2010. I honestly didn't think I would like the original, but it was actually my third-favorite game of last year behind Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Killzone 2. The idea of inputting a superhero into a GTA-like setting totally paid off; the controls were super tight, the entire experience was always entertaining and for some reason, I could just run around scaling buildings all day long. It was that much fun. At first, I thought Cole moved too quickly and that would pose a problem but it didn't take long for me to acclimatize myself. By the time it was over, I had done just about everything there was to do and was hoping for more. Even the story was pretty damn good (for an action game, anyway), and the powers you gained were awesome.

I suppose my only concern about releasing a sequel so early would be that it could be considered a "reshash," in that the developers didn't really change much. You know, maybe it feels more like an expansion than a true sequel...? But I really don't think that will happen; I do have faith in that team. I'll be looking for more info on this over the next few months, that's for sure.

I need to know more about Final Fantasy Versus XIII

I know a lot of you are amped up for this one but until I learn more about it, I have to stay on the fence. I'd be interested to know just how many members of the Final Fantasy XIII team have moved over to work on Versus, and I'd also like to know how the creation process moved along without those guys. I mean, we know Versus has been in development for a while and you have to assume Square-Enix planned to shift employees from one group to another once FFXIII was complete. So how did this work over at S-E HQ? Did they begin the design process for Versus, knowing they actually wouldn't be able to crank until another team wrapped up FFXIII? It might make sense; late last year, Square-Enix said we'd get a big unveiling for Versus in "early 2010," which is right around the time the FFXIII team would break up. But I'd like to know more about how this went down. Actually, I'd like to know a lot about how S-E does things these days.

Personal gaming update

I'm nearing the end of my third play-through in Heavy Rain; the game is just so unbelievable that it's difficult to put it down. But I've also started playing Bioshock 2 and Dante's Inferno because Arnold and I are doing dual reviews for both. I loved the first Bioshock and I've been looking forward to the sequel since 2007 but...I dunno, Bioshock 2 feels a good deal harder, almost to the point where it isn't much fun. Not only do you have to fight the Big Daddies again, but they seem far tougher, and there are also Big Sisters. Furthermore, if you wish to use the Little Sisters to harvest ADAM, you have to fend of hordes of oncoming Splicers, which is another new addition that makes you expend a great deal of ammo and possibly health. It's still a great game, though. As for Inferno, it's also good but I have a few issues with the gameplay. On the other hand, the atmosphere is undeniably cool and definitely freakish.

I still need to get that "Battle of Forli" DLC for Assassin's Creed II, which I swore I'd nab as soon as it came out. But beyond this, I think the next game I get will be Final Fantasy XIII in March, so I can focus on Bioshock 2 and more Heavy Rain. ;)

I'll be playing WKC until Heavy Rain releases. I have about 80 hours on my save file, but about 10 hours of that is from falling asleep while playing for long periods of time. I hope they make WKC 2 with a harder difficulty level.

inFamous 2 would be a preorder for me, it was my second favorite of the year just behind U2AT. I'm glad you're playing Dante's Inferno too Ben, I'm savoring it and eating it up. Speaking of which I just entered Gluttony. I hope this IP doesn't end with its first iteration, though I'm not sure where else one could take it. Very much looking forward to your dual review.

Bio2 sounds annoying so I think I'll pass on that what with WKC, XIII, and HR on the way. Who is doing the FFXIII review? Another dual?

And yeah I'll stay on the fence about Versus, everyone is saying it will be the true FF because it remains exclusive but I don't expect it to stay that way, and who knows where this game is going. It's got style, I'll give it that. I'm rambling now, I should go get some gaming done.

Nomura did a interview a while ago. Its been know for quit a while and is few of the only bit of info on the game. But they haven't said much since so for all we know they may have decided that the linear pathways of XIII was a better way to go.

But hopefully having the XIII team now working on Versus won't influence anything.Last edited by Oyashiro on 2/14/2010 7:13:35 AM

But this could be one of the most gorgeous looking game, SE said in-game graphic would be the same as the CGI, mix that with tons of action on the screen and we get something that will blow us away to Pluto.

I think Final Fantasy VS is going to be a fully fledged action game. Judging by that really old trailer, and Square Enix's commitment to westernizing there games, I wouldn't be surprised. Especially after that article psxe posted, awhile back about the next final fantasy game not being a traditional ff game.

Ben, my though sentiments exactly. InFamous was a surprise favorite of mine as well. But I've learned two things. Rather, I came to one conclusion and a decisive question after attempting my first platinum trophy for a game (through inFamous, assuming it was an "easy" one).

First, there is no such thing as an "easier" platinum. May be, less hair-pulling frustrating, or less suicide-inducing. But not easier. No, that would defeat the purpose. More on that purpose, later.

Secondly, I'm not sure what is more rediculous: the amount of time I've wasted trying to get the damn thing, or the sense of "accomplishment" of getting it (which, after two nights, I haven't gotten, yet). And I mean "rediculous" in the bad way. Trophies or achievements, or what ever you wanna call these hellish virtual trinkets through which developers seek to exact revenge on us for our selfish, petty, endless wish lists, suck the fun out of the game, and the time from our lives. And I'm at the age, where I can't afford to do that anymore.

My God. And I'm not a unskilled gamer. I'm not a professional, thank God, but I enjoy completing sp campaigns of all games without faq, guide or walkthrough. I enjoy problem-solving, figuring out a cleverly designed puzzle, or arriving at a discrete solution for a beautifully crafted challenge. I feel like I'm fully appreciating the world that has been artfully created by the designers and programmers as they intended for me to witness. But I don't get that same vibe when I'm going for the "coveted" platinum. Rather, I feel like a dog jumping through infernal hoops of punishment who only finishes the race to land in a box of doodoo. Also on fire.

I don't enjoy pinging every single area of an entire open world in a videogame, for the sake of bragging rights. No, although I may now feel enlightened to know what a video game tester experiences in his daily life, that, however, does not come with the single incentive of getting paid to do it.

Ok, now, I know there's some guy out there, who's thinking, "hey, don't know what that guy's problem is, I had no problem". And I say to him, Con-F'ing-gratulations. But to the rest of us who actually have real goals, jobs, relationships, actual events, priorities, and commitments in our lives: Don't sweat it. I'm sure if there is a God, that He has a allotted time for enjoyment, relaxation, and entertainment, but He has also granted us some higher purpose to our lives greater than Trophy-mashochism. And to those who don't believe in God: what are the bragging rights in a trophy if comes at the cost of your hair? And to those don't have hair: may be you should think of the others around you who do and would like to keep it?

I really don't see why the whole god section was necessary really, but FF there wasn't much point to that reply either, let's not get a big ol' religious debate in here =P

But indeed, I don't know how some people can sit and get platinum's all the time, some people even try to get every game so they can get platinums, how on earth do they have the time for that or do they even do anything else? jeez..oh well, I just play my game and enjoy it, if I get a trophy magically from doing what I'm already doing, yay, if not, I'm not about to go out of my way and get it =)

@ Shams - I can see how one might feel that trophies are "these hellish virtual trinkets through which developers seek to exact revenge on us for our selfish, petty, endless wish lists, suck the fun out of the game, and the time from our lives." I really do. Some trophies are pure trash. But I'll tell you why I like trophies and by extension, platinums.

I for one would have missed out on a LOT of what developers put into their games if it wasn't for these trophies. I have seen things and accomplished things in games that I would NEVER have bothered to even attempt had there not been a trophy associated with it.

Call me a weirdo if you want, but I am very happy with my accomplishments in games like Batman, GTAIV, Far Cry 2, Uncharted 1+2 and many others. Play Uncharted on Crushing mode? Not in a million years. But then there was this trophy... Turns out I CAN finish that game on crushing and it's an entirely different experience than on normal.

Long story short. Don't be a hater. Eat sleep and breath trophies and they will reward you.

I love trophies. I would have NEVER played either Uncharted on crushing either, but I did, and it was awesome... and Lazarevic on crushing is just IN-SANE, and I will never fight him on crushing again....but I'm glad I did.

As for GTA IV, I played it when it first came out before the trophies, and I haven't had the urge to go back and play it again for the trophies. And even if I did, I don't know if I would have the patience for the 200 pigeons.

To LegendaryWolfeh: Yeah, I hear you. Saying "God", in the unemphatic sense, isn't politically correct, but I find my self using it a lot when I'm having one of those soul-searching moments of reflection that causes you to look at your life, your age, and where you're at...this time brought about during an arduous pursuit of a platinum trophy. I guess it's worth something.

To Alienangel:

I misspoke. Trophies can be a nice bell and whistle when all is required is some keen observation, and technique. But when some of them are only achieved through incessant trial/error, or random events, or continuous, finger blistering, button-mashing it really becomes clear what intention the platinum trophy was created with. You cannot believe how disappointed I was last night, after executing each stunt, and finding each blast shard, only to find out I still have to "bio-leech" 100 times for the platinum. It really seems I was the one who was getting "bio-leeched".

To SvenMD:

Like I said, I love a good challenge. Although, I haven't gotten around to playing U2 on crushing (I beat it on Medium and Hard), or KZ2 on elite (I got to the last boss fight on Veteran, than decided just to play it again on Easy and beat it to save time and figure out the strategy), I did beat U1 on crushing, before it even supported trophies, and actually did not find it be "crushing", but rather enjoyable. But, i think we can both agree some trophies are more trying on one's patience and less rewarding.

Bioshock 2 is amazing and i find my self saving all my ammo for the big daddies and big sisters on all the other guys i either use plasmids or my drill im also playing dantes inferno and its definitly gona keep me satisfied till God of war 3 comes out as for heavy rain im definitly gona get it im just not sure if itll be my style of game ive played the demo and it was fun but does that mean the whole game will be fun?? i dont know but either way its a definite pickup. im definitly waiting on ff13 versus it in my opinion is the next true final fantasy im not gona waste my money on ff13 simply because they decided to put the game on the xbox and cut out a whole lot of shit

hard?bioshock is piss easy!im almost finished playing on medium settings and i have only died twice and both times were cause of my carelessness trying to hack a safe.bioshock has to be one of the easiest games i have ever played.

please sucker punch do not release infamous 2 this year.infamous is one of the best games i have ever played, i would hate to see it rushed and tainted.went over to my cuzs today for his 21st and played infamous with him, and got to say after finishing it 10 times and spending god knows how many hours playing it im still not sick of it.never has a game kept my attention for that long, not even assassins creed 2.i mean it took sucker punch 2 years to make infamous and its quite buggy.first time i booted up the game today i leaped off the roof and fell through the ground.than after i reloaded i died hanging off a building and some how got stuck in the building.if they cant make a game polished and bug free in 2 years than how the hell are they suppose to do it in 1?i want to play infamous 2 as much, probably more than anyone else but id rather wait 2 years and it be perfect than wait 1 and it be mediocre.infamous is too good a game to be rushed.

Um, those sound like miraculous one of a kind glitches. none of those have ever happened to me and how would it be rushed? they had to spend more of the first time developing an engine and now that they have one (unless they used others, I entirely don't remember) then it'd be faster to do as all they'd have to do is tweak it and make a new story and such.

true but i cant see them finishing the game in 1 year.if they can release a game of infamous quality in one year fine release it this year, but i doubt they can.same with assassins creed , ubisoft is going to run that series in the ground.thats what i hate about the industry today everything is about $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$look at GH that was such a great game, same as 2, 3, all sold quite well so it turned into a cash cow.i dont want assassins creed and infamous to suffer the same fate.not to mention there is so many games coming out this year, sony needs to spread its exclusives out because lets face it infamous needs all the help it can get.

If I'm not mistaken, Saka called it Final Fantasy because it was to be his final work for Square as Square's was facing some problems which were serious. I got my info from watching the documentary show called "Icon".

Final Fantasy saved Square but now Square Enix changed everything that was good about Square and Final Fantasy.

Or are you being sarcastic?Last edited by Snaaaake on 2/14/2010 4:46:25 AM

No I was actually being quite serious, I never knew why they named it Final Fantasy...bu tah well, good for them at the time, tried something and it worked. such sadness that all that work is being rubbed into the dirt with SE's new way of running things..

Really looking forward to a new installment of Infamous, but as mister ___________ said, they shouldn't rush it to make it a 2010 release, instead they should just take their time to make it even better than the first one, besides, those months it isn't coming out I can save up money, seeing as I'm always short on tha cash...

As for Final Fantasy Versus 13, I would like some more info on that too, like are we sure it will have towns n such, or on percents, how far are they from completing the game, are they like just starting, 5% complete or something, guessing they're about 10-15% maybe, hopefully more, since they just got a bigger team with I don't know how many people...
so many questions.

oh yeah, tis valentines day today, I never really pay attention to all those things, just christmas, new year's and birthdays.
Regardless, Happy Valentines Day to all of you

I've just been playing Final Fantasy XII all week, a little over 50 hours into it. Been meaning to start on Bioshock on the PS3, but haven't got around to it yet. Downloaded some demo's: Heavy Rain, Uncharted 2, etc. Got Flow for free too.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't get what is so great about infamous. It felt like you were endlessly killing enemies; and most importantly, in my opinion, the presentation of the game is not what I thought it would be. Infamous just did not appeal to me...

I am playing Dantes and Bioshock 2 too. I find Dantes is great fun I have just entered Anger. Bioshock 2 I am finding a pain in the backside. I find myself getting bored of it and switching back to Dantes.

I am hoping AvP is good when it releases this Friday, still cant get the demo to work, im hoping that sorts itself out before the game comes out.

FFvXIII is nothing but a fairy tale. A promise by SE to PS3 fans that they are still loyal. Now go out and buy FFXIII which is... ahem... multiplat. While you play it, we'll move the expert multiplat making dev team over to FFvXIII.

And don't forget to pick up the pants version of Nier after you're finished with the 30 hours of FFXIII

Did any one see the FF13 commercial during the nba all-star game? It was advertised for the 360 only and not the PS3 as well. Well all good things come to an end.

It's really frustrating that SE is allowing that. Its really frustrating that when I got my ps3 I thought the next FF I would get would be absolutely huge and genre defining. o-well.

This gaming generation has pretty much gone to hell, with M$ in the mix. I'm all for competition but this isnt healthy. Looks like FF13 is going to sell more on the 360 here in the U.S. Thats my guess. Then what will happen to the franchise and the Sony brand and fan loyalty?Last edited by bigrailer19 on 2/14/2010 4:11:53 PM

I just wanna say its weird sitting here watching t.v. and see that. Its really frustrating to me.

I'm sorry bout that rant but does any one else get disgusted when they see that? Look at it this way. For whatever reason FF13 went multi plat (probably money) its going to have a bigger user base now. So now, why let a commercial for it be adverstised for one platform? That one platform it has never even been on before! I mean come on!Last edited by bigrailer19 on 2/14/2010 4:48:51 PM

With you 100%, and writting to SE is actually a pretty good idea. Letting them know why it is am not going to buy their product will at least make me feel better. Just maybe they'll think twice about letting go of an exclusive. If not am ok with not playing FFxiii. At least like this i'll feel better about not supporting a corporation for selling out,or making a PS3 exclusive for the competition,and am good with that.

LittleBigMidget thats total BS you completed in 4hours- I will be looking forward to your Dantes Inferno review... if you where having problems with the gameplay im going to guess it is the flow at which you can attack see at first there isnt much flow but once you get a bunch of relics and use the right ones and upgrade your unholy and holy abilities the flow at which you can attack is insane! I pulled off a 803 hit combo in 'FRAUD' im working my second play through and im going to try the Gates Of Hell challenge. You mention that the atmosphere is undeniably cool and definitely freakish.. your totally right the art of all of it is incrediably done in such a twisted way and all the DLC coming (some of it is free) gives the game more life and gives it a real high re-play value. I played through that AC2 DLC and it is fun and all but is is 100% ripped out of the original game, when you first meet with claudia ( I think that was her name ) and save her from her stranded distress that there would be more missions.. if you look back you hardly do anything in forli and just sail to Venece. It should have been in the game to begin with but there is a twist....spoiler*

Pickup copies of WKC and SO4 at GameStop, no where else was even likely to have both. My son got the Ice Age 3 game on PS3 to play. Started SO 4 and I'm liking it, although it too me an inordinate amount of tie to realize that I could jump down off a ledge. For whatever reason it didn't register in my brain when the little notification appeared on the screen. Is it just my imagination or does the music echo Star Trek a little much? Almost like the old Star trek animated series (OK, only trekkies know what I mean, ah well....).

White Knight chronicles beckons as well, but before I get started on that I need to understand this thing about changing your avatar. If you spend $5 on the thing from PSN can you change your avatar whenever you please, or do you need top spend another $5 every time you change it? Gotta get through some more of SO4 first as well...

Still messing around with Crystal defenders on PSP and Soul Calibur Broken Destiny and a bit of GT for my PSP. I love the downloadable nature of the games I can have several 'full' games on my PSP at once, carry no discs and still get better battery life. Excellent!

Can anyone recommend a good old fashioned turn based JRPG for my wife? PS2 or PS3 is fine, she wants something that's a bit Space Opera/Sci-fi not Sword and Sorcery, and she's not a big one for blood and violence either. Basically she was spoiled by Xenosaga and can't find anything that is similar.

the $5 avatar change ticket is a one time use.. which is pretty brutal.

I also noticed that about the music in SO4 but then those games have always taken a lot of inspiration from Star Trek so it makes sense. I've been enjoying that game so much I am finding it hard to go back to WKC

Highlander: She might like a Shadow Hearts. That Judgment Ring is still one of the best systems for combat I've ever seen...she just needs good reactions. ;) Covenant is still one of the best RPGs I've ever played, and it's a dark, historic setting. Sort of a modern cross between the two styles.

BTW has anyone else noted that the graphics are extremely high contrast? Almost painfully so? I have noticed this before with games that come from the Xbox world. People often complain that the PS3 versions of games look washed out or something. Personally I find SO4 to be far too high contrast and sometime the color is almost blazing of the screen. I can't help wondering whether the graphics on a PS3 only title might have taken a slightly more muted - restful tone?

Regarding the White Knight Chronicles avatar ticket at $5 for one use. That is pretty crap.

For games for my wife, I think she'll avoid the Persona games - mega ten is not her cup of tea. I will look at the other suggestions for her though.